Hopefully you’ve seen or can see Bryon’s posts here now.  I’ve been recovering from jet lag and general exhaustion so I apologize for the lack of posts so far.

After a marathon 2 day research/booking session I booked our flight out from SFO to Dubrovnik on 5/6 for a flight on the very next day, 5/7!  I also managed to book 50% of our hotels as well as all of our other flights.  I was pretty pleased with myself.

But maybe I really shouldn’t have been so pleased with myself.  Turns out, a 40 minute connection isn’t nearly enough time to transfer in Frankfurt (Franport, as they call it).  The lady at the United desk told us that you need at least 1.5 hours.  I think the United computer program needs some work since it suggested the itinerary!  Anyway, as Bryon mentioned, she was able to get us on a direct flight to Dubrovnik so it worked out (though we arrived several hours later and even more sleep deprived.  side note: if you can find 4 chairs together, the terminal chairs at Frankfurt make for a decent nap even though they don’t look that comfortable).  The descent into Dubrovnik is breathtaking, and I think makes this flight worth the effort.  It’s in fact the most beautiful descent I have ever seen.  We were fortunate to be sitting on the left side with all of the spectacular views (YMMV).  I would have taken a picture like the passenger in front of me, but I generally follow the no electronics rules.

After we arrived at our sobe (room), we collapsed from exhaustion until the following morning.

In the morning, we took the bus to try to get to Ploce Gate (Rick Steves’ suggested starting point for walking around the wall).  Dubrovnik is a small Medieval town surrounded by a castle wall.  According to Wikipedia, “It is a testament to the resilience of the ancient walls that more buildings in the old town were not destroyed during the bombardment (during the 1991 Siege of Dubrovnik); the ancient walls in fact were more effective at resisting modern weaponry than contemporary structures in the city’s periphery”.

We also took a cable car up Mt Srd to get a better view

Dubrovnik’s Walls from the cable car

View from Mt. Srd

All in all, it was  a fun day, with the Wall walk being the most memorable experience.  There were 5 cruise ships in town that day (that I counted) so there were a lot of people in Dubrovnik.

Today, we took an early morning bus to Split.  It was a long 4 hour journey.  There were times where it was almost frightening since it involves a lot of driving on 2 lane undivided winding cliff roads, but the views were great.  It’s still the best way to get from Dubrovnik to Split IMHO and costs about $15.

After arriving in Split and resting for a few hours we decided to head out and check out Diocletian’s palace.  This was a really interesting experience and very different from other Roman ruins I’ve seen because the Old Town of Split is actually built into the ruins itself.  This means there is an interesting mix of Roman ruins, medieval buildings, and modern architecture all mixed together.

Roman column inside a bank

Merged Medieval and Roman wall

Walking along the Riva (the main promenade) feels like walking along any boardwalk with it’s modern walkways and assortment of restaurants and shops along the side.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to take a ferry to the nearby island of Bruc to check out more pristine adriatic seashore.